


the flood comes rushing in

by kenobilovebot



Series: nothing was the same [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Non-Chronological, Role Reversal, Sith Obi-Wan Kenobi, of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:48:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25551559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenobilovebot/pseuds/kenobilovebot
Summary: "I have done this for you. I have put you first." Or, Anakin finds out.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: nothing was the same [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851559
Comments: 11
Kudos: 146





	the flood comes rushing in

Anakin doesn’t have to step into the room to know that something is wrong. 

At first, he isn’t sure that the presence within is Obi-Wan. His master has always been so bright in the Force, a small sun in his own right. The Force loves him, cloaks him in warmth, but this -- 

Where once there had been dancing sunbeams, darkness whispers. Blackness like creeping vines, reaching out to pull at him, snuff out the light…

For a terrible instant, he thinks Obi-Wan must be dead. Palpatine must have killed him. 

Later, he will be unable to say if the reality is worse. 

When he steps into the room, the figure turns. The same tan robes, a face so well-loved, as familiar to him as his own, as Padme’s, but not. Before he even catches sight of the yellow irises, before he can even connect Obi-Wan with the corrupted Force signature, something is off. It’s in the way he holds himself, in the hard line of his jaw. 

He looks up and meets golden eyes.

“Master --” The words are choked.

Is he dreaming again? 

“He’s dead, Anakin.” Obi-Wan moves closer. Anxiety drives him to step back, trying to get away from that all - encompassing darkness.  _ Obi-Wan…  _ “You’re safe.” 

“What happened? You --  _ What happened to you?”  _

He is suffocating. He is drowning. This is unbearable. It’s worse. 

“I saved you.” How is his master’s voice the same, still so gentle, when everything else has become so warped? 

“You’re dark.” The statement is hardly coherent, more of a strangled whimper than anything else. 

Obi-Wan smiles a little, and fear sparks hot in his chest.

“It’s not so bad as it seems.” He looks as if he means to draw a step closer, but thinks better of it, instead holding out his hands. “Don’t you see? I have done this for you, and I have put you first. Is that not what you always wanted?” 

Yes. 

No. 

His heart pounds out a jagged rhythm against his ribcage.

Yes, there had always been a part of him that had wanted to know Obi-Wan cared. 

Not like this.

“Master,” he whispers again, feeble. The words won’t come. He doesn’t know what he wants to say.

“I thought,” Obi-Wan says, “that I was saving you from falling. That the Jedi needed you. I thought that I could not bear to lose you to the darkness, but I -- the Jedi simply misunderstood. I misunderstood. We were wrong to fear it.” 

It’s more open than Obi-Wan has ever been with him, but it’s all wrong. 

He can hardly think around the smothering darkness that has so wholly encompassed his master, so effectively destroying the light that has always been. He’s always been able to reach for it at the worst of times. Now he can’t feel it at all.

“It wasn’t the darkness you needed salvation from. It was him.” Obi-Wan gestures to the crumpled figure on the floor. In his rising hysteria, he can hardly focus on the monstrous features, can’t reconcile them with the Chancellor. “He would have hurt you. I knew that. But now you’re safe. To choose. To live. He can do nothing to you.”

Suddenly, he finds his voice. 

“Let us help you,” he says, and sounds a little stronger than he feels. He doesn’t want to, but he steps toward his master. “This isn’t you. You know it isn’t. We can bring you back. To the light.”

Obi-Wan stares at him. 

Something in his chest twists painfully. 

“It is me.” The words come after a long, painful stretch of silence. “I feel better than I have in years. You cannot possibly imagine how freeing it is to simply let go.”

He is spinning out of control. Obi-Wan has always been a paragon of light. He has always been the tether, the safety net. A voice of reason and reassurance. The arms held out to catch him when he spirals. A brother, the father he’d never had, as he’d told him time and again.

His Obi-Wan. Not _ this _ Obi-Wan.

He looks into his former master’s eyes and sees only darkness. He doesn’t see any hope of bringing him back. Something has brought Obi-Wan past the point of no return.

And he should kill him. 

He’s a Jedi. It’s his duty -- he should find the others, he should kill him --

Anakin runs. 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know your thoughts / what else you'd like to see!


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